Surplus pallets: sell the overstock
Surplus plastic pallets are pallets you bought and no longer need: cancelled orders, a changed pack, overstock. If they were never used, they are the best lot a buyer sees.
What counts as surplus
- Cancelled orders. Pallets delivered or built for a program that ended. Never used.
- Overstock. More pallets than your volume needs, sitting in a yard or a trailer.
- Changed pack. A footprint or style replaced by a new one. See retiring a footprint.
- Off-spec runs. Pallets that do not meet your spec but are whole.
Unused pallets are graded new: never in service, clean, with no marks of use. They are read as stock, not as a used lot. If a few trips have scuffed them, they become like new.
How a surplus lot is sorted
Unused and whole, in one or two footprints. A buyer reads it as stock.
Surplus that came with a pool mark or tag is not yours to sell, even if you never used it.
Surplus that sat outdoors and cracked, or was crushed in storage, goes by weight.
What to send
A surplus lot reads best with a purchase or build record, which shows the pallets are yours and are new. Add photos of one stack and one pallet from above. Give the count, the footprint and the ZIP. If the surplus is a regular event, say so; a standing buyback is a separate arrangement.
Questions
Are surplus pallets always new?
No. Surplus can be new, like new or used. The grade decides how a buyer reads it, so say which.
What if the surplus was left by a supplier?
Then check for marks first. Strays from suppliers may carry an owner's mark. See strays from suppliers.
Does it matter how long they have been outdoors?
It can. Sun, frost and crushing change a deck. Freezing can make some pallet materials brittle. Photograph the decks you are unsure about.
Words you will meet
- Nestable
- Empty pallets stack inside one another, cutting empty storage space by up to 75 percent.
- UL 2335
- UL fire-test standard for storage pallets, with an idle pallet test and a commodity storage test.
- Profile extrusion
- Pushing resin through a die to make long shapes that form pallet parts.
- Nest increment
- How much height each extra nested pallet adds to a stack.
- Captive pallet
- A pallet owned and kept inside one company or loop.
- Commodity classification
- Sprinkler design class of stored goods; an unlisted plastic pallet can raise it.
- Creep
- Slow bending of plastic under a heavy load held for a long time.
- Thermoforming
- Heated plastic sheet formed over a mould; lighter pallets.
- GMA pallet
- The 48 x 40 in North American standard footprint.
- Euro pallet
- 800 x 1200 mm footprint.
- Welding repair
- Plastic is hard to glue, so cracked parts are normally welded.
- PP
- Polypropylene. More rigid than HDPE and better with heat and harsh chemicals; used where rack stiffness matters.
- Recycled-content pallet
- A pallet moulded partly or wholly from post-industrial or post-consumer resin.
- Open deck
- Top deck with gaps between slats or ribs; lighter and drains.
- Closed deck
- Solid top deck with no gaps; keeps small items from falling through.
- Runners
- Bottom rails that touch the floor or rack and carry the load.
Who asks, and what they need
- Warehouses with automated storage
- Rackable pallets with a stated rack rating, cruciform base, consistent size for conveyors.
- Distribution centres with surplus pallets
- Sell or recycle excess lots, mixed makers and colours, broken pallets.
- Retailers that collect pooled or one-way pallets
- Stacks of marked and unmarked pallets left by suppliers; need to know which can be sold and which belong to a pool.
What the sources say
- Freezing can make some pallet materials brittle and reduce performance. (nelsoncompany.com)
- UL 2335 has an idle pallet test and a commodity storage test. (iccsafe.org)
- Nestable pallets can cut empty-pallet storage space by up to 75 percent. (blog.containerexchanger.com)
- A 48 x 40 pallet fits 30 stacks in a turned pattern on a 53 ft dry van, per one supplier. (nelsoncompany.com)
- PHS lists its EXP 100 nestable (48 x 40 x 5.2 in) at 78 pallets per stack and 2,340 per truckload, and its EXP 116 (48 x 40 x 5.75 in, 15,000 lb static) at 40 per stack and 1,260 per truckload: a higher static rating comes with fewer pallets per stack. (phsinc.com)
- Private employers in the US averaged 1,901,976 jobs across 23,345 establishments in warehousing and storage (NAICS 493) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: California (236,923), Texas (175,579), Pennsylvania (123,481), Florida (105,401), Ohio (98,354). (data.bls.gov)
- The five states with the largest gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025 were California (400 million cubic feet), Georgia (304 million), Washington (301 million), Wisconsin (297 million) and Texas (254 million), per USDA NASS. (esmis.nal.usda.gov)
- Port of Long Beach moved a record 9,881,595 TEUs in 2025 (imports 4,779,559; exports 1,141,113; empties 3,960,925), per Container News reporting the port's year-end results. (container-news.com)
- The five states with the most warehousing and storage jobs held 39% of the national total in 2025, and the top ten held 58% (California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Indiana, New York), BLS QCEW. (data.bls.gov)
- That nestable has a 2.50 in nest increment and 1,260 units per 53 ft trailer. (rehrigpacific.com)
- A used Nelson 48 x 40 x 6.3 in HDPE one-piece pallet weighs 49 lb with 30,000 lb static, 5,000 lb dynamic and 2,200 lb racking ratings. (nelsoncompany.com)
- iGPS announced FM approval in 2008 for its all-plastic RFID-tagged pooled pallet, which had UL 2335 certification from 2007. (freightwaves.com)
- For products touching the pallet directly, stricter federal requirements may call for non-blended virgin HDPE; recycled pallets often meet general FDA needs. (nelsoncompany.com)
- Greystone Logistics processed about 60 million pounds of recycled plastic in the year ended May 31, 2024, using damaged plastic pallets from a buy-back program among its feedstock. (resource-recycling.com)
- The 800 x 1200 mm Euro footprint is the second most popular plastic pallet size worldwide. (blog.containerexchanger.com)
- Nelson Company defines dynamic capacity as the load a pallet carries in motion, always below static; static as the load at rest and the bottom pallet's limit in a stack; racking as the load across an open rack span, often the lowest and given only for pallets designed for it. (nelsoncompany.com)
Keep reading
Send the lot
Size, count, grade, branding and ZIP. Photos help, and you can reply to the first answer with them. This site states no price or pickup date.